Ok, i decided to scrape the long rant before people get corroded, in favour of a more lighter note:

I just had Horatio down to 2100 health with the gorgon. It was a massive luckout, though, but at least there is a way to luck out with the gorgon - which is good news. Key thing is HALPMEH, which I simply didn't chance into before.

Typing it up now, but still, if you're doing gorgon I feel bad for you son, it took 99 trickshots and I still haven't won.

Luckout was - HALPMEH, Gloves of Midas (had to scrape them though) and Platemail. Spent most of the game with those things and it worked. Also used fireball, and later BYCEPS. If I had money, there were martyr wraps, and a tower shield in the shops but it was impossible to get them (I think).

Floor luckout was - I managed to kill the illusion with only 3 weakenings stuck on me, but drac and the statue showed up at the last possible moment, with only two floors to go in an impossibly perfect and perilous moment. If I didn't find both right there and then I would've lost. This also means I got to floor 8 on only Binlor, and managed to get my magic resists maxed out in the process. Also, first floor troll, second floor fully explored, third floor revealed and a late Drac + luckout ment that I had a bunch of bloodpools lying around.

Bad Luck was - No IMAWAL, so no knockback ws. Horratio, and no soul orb which might've affected my gameplay. In an impossible stroke of luck, I've seen the least ammount of wraiths I've ever seen in a VGT run. I still reached horatio with 0 potions. Reason I didn't have money is that I HAD to buy a keg of health and use the potions to spike someone (can't remember), it was that bad.

Gameplay was - play TIGHT. Like, q3 with a savegame playing PBEM tight. Use endiswall at every opportunity, prioritizing subdungeon/lowe floor/piety walls and setting knocbacks up. Binlor up your resists slowly, but save exploration at every corner, and time stoneskins to not coincide from the might on wall destruction, if possible, or squeeze the deathgaze wins where you otherwise wouldn't. Also, using binlor to free up your bloodpools might be a good idea.

Key - Halpmeh. It's pretty much impossible any other way, and tbh it's also impossible without Drac, and those two only really work togather for the paladin. If you can get your resists from Binlor and whatever other source (you need 18%-ish), I think you can just grab sanguine and get out, but there are several ways it can play out. Halpmeh + Rbs+ Resists beat everythign but mana burn, that is, don't fail horribly against anything, except a long stretch in Drac is suicide. Hurrying your binlor development for an early 100 piety dip into Drac for the shield and sanguine, then going back into Binlor for magic resists and unrestriced halpmeh shennanigans might be good, but god knows how difficult it would be to pull off...

Pro tip - luck out massively. Like, hugely. Get everything possible lined up and play to the best of your abilities, and it could be doable. Maybe. Also, god knows what I'm missing, ofc. I've made mistakes, but I was juggling to many plates for my skill level. IMAWAL monkeying at Horratio can't be done in binlor, and Halpmeh can't be done in Drac, so finding the optimal way to juggle those two could be key to figuring out.

Good news - Binlor might actually be good for stuff in there. Well, poison strike was big and only Gorgon can have it reliably, but a rather effortless max magic resists is nothing to sneeze at, plus "free" mights on wall destruction. Might be a hoot with Monks.

And, err, it was by far the easiest one in terms of resources left over. Also strategy, come to think of it. I didn't in fact need drac at all, I believe and had... everything left over. And nothing really special tbh, just binlor, pactmaker and halpmeh, and a lucky first lvl scroll.

I think it was really tight at one point, and since the last time was so difficult I even remembered to use the long rant.

Preps were the same as last time, except I spent about 3000 thousand gold trying to scumm up a first floor drac with binlor prepped (I hate scumming), and then I saw PM with scroll first floor, and thought - what the hell, I like playing more than scumming. Then I found HALPMEH, and it spiraled out of contoll. In retrospect it was easier than the rogue. If you play the early game thight enough, and scumm pactmaker up, it really destroys.

Balpmeh + poison strike + full binlor + body pact (+ rock heart, dont ask) kicked so much ass that I converted to taurog for the sword and shield at about floor 5-6 (for a lark) and converted fireball by accident, but still won handily. I know the devs put the miner bombs in there for some reason, and that they wouldn't make such a huge blunder as to make it undoable.

And, err, I'm really curious who else can get mileage out of Binlor in there, because if you go Binlor then just about everything you do removes resists - knock something into a wall - might, blast a bomb - might, use IMAWAL - might, cast byceps - might + 1 piety if in binlor, use endiswall - might, pissorf something - might... I bet there's fun times to be had with monks and half-dragons, especially since he fills up your mgic resists nicely...

Just remember to pack the subdungeon and use it carefully for the walls, and remember to use pissorf to destroy walls for a good while, because it's cheaper. Scumming up Drac instead of pactmaker and converting in at 100 early piety then going back to Binlor might also work...

EDIT: Oh, and I had the crazy awesome prepped binlor + scroll + 1st floor drac + halpmeh + platemail + vampiric blade setup on a run before this one, but naturaly I killed my stupid self on the retaliate fireball 2nd floor. Go me! Then the one I described happened, which was "wth, go might on wall destruction, consensus right off the bat, knocback and body pact, let's do this!", and it totaly worked

What's next? Fighter? Warlord? Half-Dragon? Half-Dragon should be trickier than it looks - sure you don't need RBS for wraiths and blobs, but you still need it for the golems so big whoop about magic damage, and knockback is rather less effective without either poison or Imawal shennanigans - and you can't do Imawal while in Binlor, plus 0 starting resists. Should be appropriately nerve wrecking...